Svitolina dumps Wozniacki to clinch Toronto title

TORONTO (Reuters) – Ukrainian Elina Svitolina capped a remarkable week in Toronto by beating Dane Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 6-0 at the Rogers Cup on Sunday to capture her tour-leading fifth title of the season.

Fifth seed Svitolina, whose run to the final included wins over Venus Williams, Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza and defending champion Simona Halep, used a strong return game throughout the 77-minute match to beat sixth seed Wozniacki.

“It was an incredible week. Played against great players, I beat them, and it’s just something really amazing and I am very, very tired,” said Svitolina, who was playing her third match in two days after rain pushed her quarter-final to Saturday.

“I left everything out there. It’s been incredible that I could go through this. I didn’t even think that I could.”

The 22-year-old Ukrainian was so doubtful that she could even reach the final that she had a flight booked on Friday to the next tournament in Cincinnati.

But Svitolina showed she clearly belonged, using a mix of powerful groundstrokes and an impressive return game to secure her fourth victory over a top-10 opponent this week.

With the win, Svitolina will move up one spot to a career-high world number four when the new rankings are released on Monday.

Svitolina, who has yet to lose in a final this year, broke Wozniacki three times during the first set and another three times during a lopsided second set to deny the former world number one her first title since last October.

Wozniacki was playing in her sixth final of 2017 but the 2010 Rogers Cup champion has yet to come out on top following losses at Doha, Dubai, Miami, Eastbourne and Bastad.